


A Barren and Rogue Existence

by StreakingHerculobus



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: The Animated Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-09-07 17:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8809507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StreakingHerculobus/pseuds/StreakingHerculobus
Summary: Logan wasn't as alone as he thought in this apocalyptic world when Rogue and Gambit rescue him and Laura from the authorities at the last moment.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this chapter before the movie came out in anticipation of the movie. I recently went back and cut out the stuff that didn't match for the most part.

 

 

The situation was grim. A dozen humvees were flying over the mounds of sand rapidly approaching their location. Logan assessed both the Professor and Laura. They were not equipped for this kind of fight. Those men had automatic rifles. They were professionals in their field. Wolverine wasn't so deluded that he believed he could fight them all off and cover for his companions as well.

"Run," he urged. Xavier wasn't in any condition to move, but the girl could get out of here...maybe. If he and the Professor held them off long enough.

She peered at him, desperate and in disbelief.

"I said go!" he roared, and she flinched. Xavier smiled at her reassuringly and nodded.

"We'll be okay," he lied in a grandfatherly fashion, like the words you tell your children before going quietly into the night. "Now, time is running out. Don't look back."

She shook her head, clearing her mind, and then her arms were wrapped around the Professor. She clung to him for the first time, and as if it was going to be her last. Then she darted West, towards the cover of vegetation.

Logan watched her go and then turned his attention towards the armed convoy headed their way. He gave the Professor a smirk, and quipped, "Just like old times."

Xavier smiled, reminiscing on the early days. Since then he had agonized over how things could've gone so wrong. One thing was certain it seemed, between two timelines. Mutants were not meant to make it on this Earth.

**X**

"I woke up this morning, and the sun was gone...Turned on some music to start my day."

Red eyes glinted meanly behind the wheel of the jeep he personally outfitted with a 350 cubic inch engine. With 38-inch swamp tires, it roared across the desert, kicking up a mile of dust behind him, and he didn't hear anything outside the radio and the hum of the motor.

It was a beautiful day. He took out a can of the whiskey that he always kept on his person and tossed one back, quenching his dry throat. Smirking at the sight of ten black military vehicles in the distance, he pressed the accelerator to the floor, pushing the RPM's over the red line.

It was good to be alive.

**X**

Logan unsheathed his claws. Xavier prepared to use his telepathy. Or as much of it as he could with the medication.

The vehicles were almost upon them. Two were already veering towards Laura. And Xavier focused his attention on those particular drivers.

Logan strode out to meet the rest, about to let the Wolverine inside him take control, when out of nowhere what must have been a meteor crashed down through the roof of the lead humvee. And without further ado out of the wreck, the same green and yellow streak collided with the next humvee over. In the span of several seconds, two of the convoy had already been taken out. Logan pulled up, at a loss.

"Wait, I know that-"

But he was cut off by the arrival of a black jeep, which careened between him and the parade of humvees.

"There's no way," Logan muttered.

Out of the driver's side sauntered a tall man with red body armor and a brown trench coat. He pulled out a playing card and winked at Logan, before striding around the front of his truck.

Rogue had already demolished a majority of the humvees, smashing through them with brute strength. Soldiers were scattering and they took pot shots when they could, not that any of the bullets pierced her skin.

Then there were explosions, as Gambit charged his makeshift grenades and cast them into the fray. He didn't care where they landed. His girl would be okay, and as for the feds, well, they better just get out of the way.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Chuck?"

Having taken care of the trucks in pursuit of Laura the Professor brought his hand to his chin, rendered mute by the fact that these two could still be alive when he thought all of his X-Men had perished.

The soldiers were scattering, having realized their disadvantage. One yelled into his radio, but reinforcements were not going to arrive in time. Their vehicles, destroyed, and in the cover of Gambit's explosions, Rogue had taken care of all their weapons, bending the barrels with ease.

"I might'a killed one o' two. Accident'ly," Gambit drawled, lumbering back towards the jeep. "Oh voyez qui c'est! Look who it is, chere."

Rogue landed right next to him, an unreadable expression on her face.

"Are you goin' to hop in, old man?" Gambit gestured towards the jeep. "Don't keep me waiting. I'm not your chauffeur."

Rogue, though still thrown by her mixed feelings from seeing Logan and the Professor again, couldn't help but banter back. "But you're our driver."

Gambit put a hand over his chest, offended. "Then you can get your own lift mademoiselle. I spent a lot of time on this" he said patting the hood. "And I don't need missus muscle-pants putting any dents in it."

"Fah heaven's sake, Remy, Ah don't have lots of muscles! Ah'm not one of them bodybuildin' women you see on the teevee. Gross!"

"Peu importe! Is that why you're always mixing protein drinks? I see you."

She slapped her forehead. "That's vodka, you ignorant swamp rat." Done with that conversation she shot forward and scooped up the Professor. Looking back, she barked at Logan, "You comin'?"

Laura was on edge, naturally. She still watch from a distance, preparing to go after the people who ad captured the Professor so easily.

Taking two breaths she sprinted forward aiming for the woman who had just finished placing the old man in the truck.

Rogue, meanwhile, had turned around at Gambit's shout of warning, and just in time to catch the fist connected to five sharp adamantium claws. "Oh gosh, sugah. Would you put those things away?"

"Kid," Logan growled. "It's okay. They're with us."

She looked to Xavier who nodded from inside the Jeep.

"Come on, kid," Logan started to guide her by the shoulders, but Laura quickly pulled away.

"Fine," he sighed. "Have it your way."

A minute later they were traveling down a dusty desert road, back to the border, the sun beginning to set, casting an orange glow on the land. Laura got a front row seat, while Logan was taking care of the Professor in the back. There were five of them, however, and so with no room left in the cabin, Rogue had chosen to sit on the roof, he feet swaying in front of the windshield.

She leaned forwards, enjoying the feel of her hair whipping around, and eager to see what the future held now with Logan and the Professor below.

**X**

The stars were as clear as possible from any point on the surface of the Earth. Here on a Mexico night, Rogue couldn't sleep and she didn't know whether it was an emotional issue or she just wasn't that tired.

Leaning against the mortar of their temporary shelter, a shack out in the middle of literally nowhere, she put a cigarette to her lips and tried to ignore the feelings seeing Charles Xavier stirred in her, feelings that were entirely too positive for the reality of their situation. Under normal circumstances, she'd care that all the mutants were gone. However, she never really fit in with them, to begin with. The Professor couldn't change that.

"Hey," a voice interrupted her rather melancholy thoughts. She could hear the shuffling of feet in the background. Then, echoing across the desert, a simple name, "Marie."

Rogue tossed her head back and laughed though not in a pleasant fashion. Logan hated how wrong it reverberated in his bones. When he found her the first time in the alternate timeline, homeless on a Canadian road, he had promised to watch out for her. But events had conspired against her, against the both of them. It didn't seem like they were destined for a happy ending.

"I didn't know you smoked now."

"Ah guess ah absorbed you one too many times."

Logan crossed his arms and looked out into the distance, fighting back the urge to get out his own smoke. "I don't know whether that is a good thing or not."

Rogue cast the cigarette down and stamped it out. "It's a good thing. Keeps me company."

Logan barked a short laugh. "No, not my cranky ass."

She smiled, thinking about some of the ways his psyche had encouraged her in the past. And for the moment, because she knew once the truth gets out, he would never see her the same again, she chose to reveal a little more than what she was comfortable with about her past. "You were the first one to ever see me, ah mean l'ahk truly look at me. Honest, you could berate me all day, and ah wouldn't care. It means more to me than all those false pleasantries people give me, fake facades, acting like they're not scared. Ah absorbed them. I know they're scared. And look at me," she said, motioning to how there was not a scratch on her, despite all the damaged she caused the previous day. "Ah was sitting at 50,000 feet before you saw me dive into those cars. It turns out they had a good reason to be scared. Ah'm not human. Ah'm not even a mutant anymore."

"Rogue," Logan breathed.

"1944," she cut him off. "The Pacific. It was a warmer morning than usual. When those planes attacked your ship. Bright lights. Explosions all around. Ah remember you weren't tired. Everyone else was. It's why you were able to swim to an island shore, hauling two other sailors with you."

Flashes. Her words seemed to trigger images in his mind. The ocean. The Japanese. That was after his ordeal on the European front. Flashes of sardonic grins, even as his fellow soldier bled out beside him. While he was mending, growing stronger, everyone around him was falling apart.

"I'm sorry, Rogue, that you have to see all that."

"No, don't be sorry. It makes me wiser. It's hard to feel sorry for m'self, it seems trivial in the scheme of things that ah can't touch people. The world goes on."

"You don't look any older than the day I saw you last."

"Kree blood. Healing factor. Who knows. Ah'll be here for a while yet, though. You taught me how to survive. Ah remember Scott thought we were heroes. We knew better, didn't we?"

 


	2. Chapter 2

It was a quaint little cafe, the double doors not two feet from the pavement of the highway. Logan and the others ordered themselves a biscuit. Rogue was chowing down on two quarter-pound cheeseburgers. The only explanation she gave: hyper-metabolism.

"We can't stick around for long," Logan muttered. "If I know Pierce and if I know Caliban, we're being tracked."

"It's not Pierce you have to worry about, mon-ami." Gambit swished back a mouthful of iced tea. "Ever heard of a Doctor Zander Rice?"

The Professor creased his eyebrows. "Yes, I remember. A scientist for the group Alkali-Transigen. The X-Men were investigating him before..."

"What about him," Logan interjected, before the Professor began remembering too much.

"You should know," Rogue joked. Though it wasn't really a joking matter.

"You killed his father," Gambit explained. "Back when you first escaped Alkali lake. Probably caused him to have some sort of psychosis. Because since then, he has been plotting the extinction of the mutant race."

"And he's succeeded." Rogue finished off the last bite of her sandwich and washed it down with some of Gambit's iced tea, smirking at him.

"Wait," Logan quizzed. "How do you know all this?"

Gambit and Rogue exchanged a look. Hesitantly, she replied, "You'll know in time. We're headed towards Oklahoma City. There's somebody there who can help the Professor."

Laura immediately tugged on the Professor's jacket. "Eden," she said firmly.

Logan banged his fist on the table, startling the waitress. "There's. No. Eden. It's a comic book. The stories aren't real."

The Professor gave him a withering look. "That's not necessary, Logan. There's other survivors, children like her. They will be there. They need our help."

Rogue focused on Xavier. "Ah'm sorry, Professor, but ah've seen all the meds you have left. You don't have any time. Do you want a repeat of-"

"Exactly," Logan cut her off. "So how about a compromise? We drop the Professor off first and then go see about these survivors."

Laura h'mphed and crossed her arms, plotting to take off at the first opportunity.

Charles Xavier knew her thoughts but chose not to comment. "Now," he addressed Rogue, "what's this person's name? And why does he want to help?"

Gambit smiled nervously. Rogue flushed and looked away. At last she whispered, "Nathaniel Essex."

Logan stood up and pointed a finger at Gambit. Rogue winced at the sound of his chair clattering to the floor. "I thought you learned your lesson the first time, bub! Now you've dragged Rogue into this?"

Rogue look embarrassed. Gambit frowned and stood up as well. One thing he didn't miss from the old days, constantly defending himself from Wolverine. "You have no idea what you're talking about! Where were you all this time? Where were you when Rogue was captured-"

Gambit paused at the feeling of someone tugging on his arm. He looked down and Rogue shook her head, an anxious expression on her face.

Logan didn't want to believe. He didn't want to believe that he failed twice to protect Rogue. Numb he marched through the exit, ignoring Charles's pleas to come back. He lit a smoke, wishing that he never met Laura. He wished that the Professor wasn't sick. It was getting entirely too complicated. Back in the old days, this is generally when he would take off. But the X-Men were a thing back then. Today, Logan knew, he couldn't afford to just go riding into the sunset. No matter how much he had to clear his head.

Rogue joined him, strangely. She laughed nervously. "I guess the cat's out of the bag."

Logan shook his head. To him there was no way to apologize. "Listen," he began, searching for the words.

"It's okay," Rogue supplied. "When ah left the X-Men, ah didn't expect y'all to come chasing after meh whenever ah got in trouble. 'Specially not someone as trivial as mahself."

Seeing as how Rogue being captured in the last timeline had led to the perfection of the sentinels, Logan knew that wasn't the case at all. Her abilities ironically helped doom the mutant race as well as save it when she borrowed Kitty's powers.

"It's mah fault. I know I was one of the reasons you left. I never could stay in one place for long."

Leaning on the jeep, Rogue turned her head as a southward wind blew a bunch of dust into their faces. It coated her lips so she licked them and spit out the taste of the dirt.

Logan, for the first time, observed Rogue. She was a perplexing mix of contradictions. She was tall, fit, and possessed a confident devil-may-care gait. Yet she was always putting herself down. She was invulnerable, yet quick to anger, and prone to feeling hurt.

And himself. Still running. Unable to settle down. Despite the Professor's insistence.

"In the end," he said, "Not much has changed, after all."

At that moment Gambit came sprinting out of the cafe. "The kid asked to go to the bathroom. When I figured it had taken too long, I discovered she had bolted out the window."

Through the front window pane of the cafe Logan could see the Professor mouthing, "Go after her."


End file.
